When Dr. Suneeta Mittal approached me with the invitation for inaugurating this Consortium on National Consensus for Medical Abortion in India, I was in a great dilemma; Parliament is in session and I am committed to be there as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs. My presence in Parliament is unavoidable, but here is a topic which is very close to my heart.

All the previous speakers today were doctors, except Shri Prasada Rao. All of them have examined this issue from a medical angle, but I have come here as a politician. I would like to state that this issue is of prime concern both for the Nation’s health and Women’s health. We are a country of over one billion population, and this growing population has decelerated all that is intended to be achieved through our plans. Land is not elastic and stretchable. Water, minerals, oil, etc. all exist in limited quantities, and it is not possible for us to divide them beyond a limit. We have, therefore, issued a National Population Policy.

For many years, the Government has been emphasizing on the need for limiting the family size. It is a fact that the responsibility for this has to be shared by both husband and wife. Still, when an unwanted pregnancy occurs, it is the woman who undergoes the ordeal and her health gets put to test. Many people have mentioned that our present social set-up is such that woman’s wish has no importance in deciding for or against conception.

It is mainly a man’s domain and dominance. Quite often pregnancy occurs even when not planning for it. There again, it is the woman who has to bear the brunt, leaving no option except to go in for abortion. And as Suneeta Mittal was, herself, saying that, among all the methods of abortion so far, the one considered the safest is vacuum aspiration-take her to the OT and get the pregnancy evacuated surgically. In such a situation, if a thing like medical abortion becomes available, unwanted pregnancy can be got rid of by only taking a tablet without surgical intervention. It will be a boon for the nation and the women.

This would sound as exhilarating as in the case of a child being taken for administering an injection, or for vaccination, being suddenly told that now an oral vaccine is available, and the child would be sent back after giving 2-3 drops of the oral vaccine. There will be sudden glow on the child’s face. Or when an insulin–dependent is told that, there will no longer be need to take insulin injections, since the insulin is available in a tablet form. Information about the introduction of medical abortion will provide a similar joy to the women. As our Secretary, Family Welfare has announced, this will be a milestone for the progress of Family Welfare programme. We know that mostly following an unwanted pregnancy and being scared of surgical procedure, women decide to continue pregnancy and an undesired child is born, adding to population burden.

Introduction of medical abortion in the country will greatly accelerate the pace of our family welfare programmes. However, the muted note of caution sounded by various luminaries, from Dr. Dave to Dr. Agrawal, is no less significant. The popularity of a medicine depends on what its ill-effects would be. Just now when I raised this issue, Dr. Agrawal mentioned that the success rate of medical abortion in France is 95%. This is an impressive success; still we should introduce it in our country with all safeguards and precautions. It is necessary to review our network. Even if ill-effects exist in just 5% of the cases, in the introductory phase, we need to be extra careful. In some cases, excess bleeding occurs, necessitating immediate blood-transfusion.

In the beginning, taking a little extra care and caution will go a long way to make the programme successful. In this consortium, you have participation of learned scholars and researchers from India and abroad, who will present their respective views and experiences before you in this 3-day event. I wish you a great success; as it will not merely be a success of medical doctors, or of AIIMS Centre or of Dr. Suneeta Mittal, but it will be a
success of the family-welfare programme. Our mission of population stabilization as a campaign is going to be successful, and it will be a major contribution to the National Population Policy. My very best wishes for the success of this consortium!